Ok so I’m working in my office in the official blogging headquarters of WTMH Radio/StraightOfficial Ohio/State Of Hip Hop.com and I’m in one of those blah moods. All of the sudden my Telegram alerts are lighting up out of control. It’s the CEO of The Fleet DJ’s Klassik and he wants to know if I’d be available to interview Daz Dillinger of The Dogg Pound and Big Gipp of Goodie Mob. He said “Yo! I’m giving this to you because you really know how to put together great interviews…don’t let me down” But that’s not what I’m thinking… My mind automatically goes back to being in Sigonella Italy in January of 1993 and having two tapes in my walkman to get me through a Naval tour. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Redman’s Whut Thee Album. Then in 1995, the month I’m released from the Navy…I’m in the post office hating life and the only two tapes that get me through are Goodie Mob’s Soul Food and D’angelo’s Brown Sugar. So to be able to talk to these guys was more than an honor…they really shaped my young adult life.

It’s 2pm Eastern time and the phone rings promptly. I look on the caller ID and immediately I see it’s a Los Angeles California number. Presumptuous I just answer..”Dat Nigga Daz!”….and in true Long Beach vernacular he replies “Whaddup homie?” I want to continue the conversation but I can’t stop smiling. This is gonna be a true “for the culture” phone call. These two were right in the middle of Hip Hop when it shifted in 1995 from East and West coast prominence to The South Uprising. But to see The South and West collaborate under one groove….DJ Layne Luv is here for this.

SO: Let’s just skip all the propers…how did y’all two muh fuchas decide to get together one day and make some music?

Bigg Gipp: Man Daz jus called me up one morning and said let’s make some music. I showed up..DJ Funky and Cool Dolla and Henry West was in there already cookin.. Then I heard the beat. I instantly loved it man. Daz made the hook…I went outside…when I come back in he had the hook and the verse laid. But I wasn’t ready. So I smoked a blunt..took it home and sat on it for a day or two…came back to the studio. Daz said you ready and I said yeah I’m ready…laid down the verse and the finished product was Type Of Girl. That was the first song we did.

SO: I’m very skeptical when veterans come back and make music because there is a dilemma of walking away from the game holding the hand in the air for The Final Shot…preserving the legacy versus coming back in a Washington Wizards Jersey. But Type Of Girl seems to fit right in with the music we are hearing today. How does feel to still be in touch with what’s going on?

Daz: I’m not gonna lie, it feels great! To still be able to do what you love and the people still respond to it with approval. We just keep thriving. As long as you have a good heart, you breathing and your health is good..from that point it’s about elevatin the game. And staying consistent. I’ve alway been able to be myself no matter where I’m at and I’m grateful for that.

SO: Man when I reminisce on how LA music make me feel and how Dungeon Family music made me feel, it just feels like a good time..like a backyard cookout…blended with a lot of herbal essence as the elixir….does that help with the vibe of the records you all put out?

DAZ: Man we are doing just that right now as we speak (Laughter in the background from all the niggas in the studio hahaha) DJ Marijuana is IN THE HOUSE….(I can’t control my laughter at this point) Seriously it doesn’t help it or hurt it, It’s helps most rappers to relax so the thoughts and creativity and push through. You can smoke weed and still make a wack song, we just happen to be good and what we do and the weed helps with that.

SO: So Daz as good as you are a rapper, you’re also one hell of a producer and you’ve engineered some classic West Coast bangers…one of my favorites being Tupac’s “Got My Mind Made Up” ..so two questions. Who’s producing your music now and tell our audience what it was like working under the tutelage of Dr. Dre?

DAZ: So Cool Dolla is our producer right now but we are working with anyone that got heat for real…

But when you talk about Dre and those years…whew….Man at first I was just puttin shit together that I thought sounded good. And then Dre would walk by the studio and say…I like this…or I don’t like that and I was just in there learning from him. But it all changed the day he said “Here Daz, I’ll let you use my drum machine” I don’t know what happened but from that one thing…it all changed and I created Rat A Tat Tat and all that shit…but seriously Warren G is who helped me get the most out of Dre’s drum machine. But Dre showed me how to put the beat on tracks and put stuff around it to make the beat sound fuller. Dre helped me out a lot.

SO: SO Gipp being that ATL has been a residence in the rap game for more than a decade going on two…how do you feel that your city has had such a long reign in music? It was a time that Hip Hop bounced around every ten years or so, but it seems that ATL has a stronghold on the game right now. How do you feel about that?

GIPP: It feels great, how these kids are taking the foundation that The Dungeon Family started and taking the ball and running with with. You see down south, we encourage growth, so when we see these kids creating, making their own beats and creating their own sound, that’s what keeps the music going for us…and quite frankly…as long as there is STRIP CLUBS…you always gonna hear ATL music. (A Loud laughter in the studio again) You can tell when you got a banger..is when them strippers start moving to it. Our music is a music that transcends gender or race. It’s family and it’s hood. I got nothing but respect for these young millionaires Migos,Metro Boomin, Mike Will Made It, Future, Young Thug, South Side, Colli Park they continue to push the culture by taking this music worldwide. I love it.

SO: So Gipp let me take you back to The Source Awards in 95′ . When 3 Stacks said “The South Got Something to say” Did you even guess that those words would be prophetic and set off the ATL revolution?

GIPP: Man to tell you the truth, I was on stage with him and I couldn’t hear let alone focus on what Dre was saying. We was all in fight mode. It was so rowdy and noisy in there, you could feel the tension to the point where any and everything could have jumped off… and we was ready. We was all on the defensive at that moment so I didn’t really hear what Dre said until years later when I saw the tape. But looking back, yes it was prophetic and I’m glad he said it, because the south took that baton and we never looked back.

SO: SO when can we expect the full album fellas?

DAZ: Late winter, early spring…just in time for them coasters and them honeys. ATLA baby!!!

SO: Well I thank y’all for taking time out of yall’s studio session to holler at ya boy. Much success to you both bringing the south and the west together to stir up a good pot of gumbo.

DAZ: Thank you Layne Luv and Straight Official for having us and big shout out to The Fleet DJ’s for playing our music!!! Much Respect!!! Respect The DJ!

Emceeing, Djing and breakdancing are just some of the elements that make up the culture of hip-hop, but one thing that some people often overlook is Graffiti. Of course, you have the expression with music but everybody is talented in different ways so what better way to express the culture of hip hop but through art. Graffiti is a way to tell a story. The artist usually tends to express where their from or send a message to the surrounding community. Check out the video below to learn more about the Graffiti culture!
“People with money can put up signs you don’t have money you’re marginalized…you’re not allowed to express yourself or to put up words or messages that you think other people should see. Camel (cigarettes), they’re up all over the country and look at the message Camel is sending…they’re just trying to keep the masses paralyzed so they can go about their business with little resistance.” — Eskae

On this day March 24, 1992, Arrested Development debut album 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days In The Life of … was released. The group was formed in the late 80s by rapper Todd Thomas and Timothy Barnwell on turntables. The album was number one in “The Village.” The group was formed in Atlanta, to be an alternative to the “Gangsta Rap” with a more Afrocentric style. Montsho Eshe, Rasa Don, One Love, Tasha Larae, Baba Oje, JJ Boogie, and Isaiah Williams lll make up the group. The group won two Grammy’s. The group did a song called “Revolution “ which was for Malcolm X a biopic movie by film director Spike Lee which was released not 1992. After a few years of not reaching people in the United States, the group took the music to Japan and since then have had consistent success in Japan. It is said the group will be touring soon in the United States and Australia to celebrate their 20th anniversary. There most recent song is called “This was never home”. June 1, 2017 the group will be performing at the City Winery in Atlanta, Ga.

The early 90’s still brought about a plethora of R&B singing groups. The funny thing about the R&B groups of the 90’s, is that they started to separate themselves from the Jheri curl & sequin suits era. Out of the blue, you started noticing singers wearing baseball hats and jerseys. When they would show up to perform at shows, you thought groups like Jodeci were going to sing not rap. This new style brought about a coined term from Sean “Puffy” Combs called Hip Hop Soul. All of the sudden, the radio was filled with songs that had “The Funky Drummer” sample with singers that had church harmonies in the background.

In the summer of 1993, I was in Virginia. Boyz II Men and Jodeci were still preparing for their sophomore releases, and besides SWV blowing up the airwaves, this blaring tenor was coming from the jeeps screaming “I Want To Be The One…Leeeet Me Be!” Now R&B songs sounding like church songs were nothing new, but this voice sounded like no other. It was the legendary Kenny Greene pleading with the Hip Hop soul gods to be the next voice. And for the next year, he was. Songs like Come Inside and Don’t Leave Me were on a number of slow jam mixtapes.

This story has a common thread among singing groups as with any story on UnSung. The rise to power where you are riding high, to the tragedies of that same star power waining because of the gravity theory, what goes up must come down. From the lack of enthusiasm of the labels marketing to group members going in different directions, it’s just the natural progression of singing groups. However, the unsettling thing is, that 90’s lead singers were passing away around the turn of the century at an alarming rate like an omen or curse. Tony Thompson of Hi-Five, Dino of H-Town, Left Eye of TLC, Orish Grinstead of 702 and unfortunately the group Intro was not spared that fate. Kenny Green passed away in 2001 from complications of the disease known as AIDS. Since then, the group has gone through some lead singers, that didn’t prove successful until they came up with the lightbulb conclusion that Kenny simply could not be replaced and so Intro decided to take the music in another direction while still keeping the core sound and audience.

Buddy Wike the original and founding member of the group tells Part 1 of this Amazing story as On The Table takes a closer look at what happened to the group Intro.

OTT: Thank you so much for taking out your time to speak with us. How did the group intro come about?

BW: Thank you so much for sharing your platform with me. Well, we have to go back to Fort Bragg North Carolina when I was in the military. I met Kenny Thomas, and he told me about this kid named Kenny Greene that could sing real good. He knew I played piano and figured there might be something we could come up with. So we ended up linking on a Sunday writing a bunch of songs. We started out recording rap and house songs for a small indie label. Ned Pdub Brown was our lead rapper in the group. I was doing the tracks, Kenny was doing the background and lead vocals and Nelson was doing backgrounds and rap parts. Soon after that, next thing you know… Desert Storm/ Gulf War broke out and I ended up being deployed. Long story short, while I was in the desert, someone sent me a tape of Lalah Hathaway, and it was all I played. What struck me was, that Lalah reminded me of Kenny a great deal. While I was there, I kept saying, “If I ever get back in touch with dude, we’re going to make something happen.” Once I got back in town, it took about six months, but we linked back up and started working. Through another friend that used to dance with Kwame, I linked up with Jeff Sanders that could dance real good. I couldn’t dance that well but Jeff brought me along. Through that particular chemistry and hangin out, we became a group. We all had the same vision. TO BECOME STARS!

OTT: So tell us how super producer Eddie F of Heavy D & The Boyz found you guys…

BW: Hahaha. What people don’t know is, Heavy (RIP) found us first and then sent us to see Eddie. This was way before Heavy started managing groups like Soul IV Real.

One night Jeff took us to this club called The Red Zone in New York, and on our way, we had been singing Peaceful Journey, (RIP T-Roy) one of Heavy’s songs. It just so happens Heavy D was there that night, so when we saw him we were just like “This is our chance, what better time than to just sing for him right now!” He really dug it. He took our number and told us to call Eddie F because he had a production company called The Untouchables. So when the next week came around, we thought we were gonna meet with these corporate heads and listen to demo tapes all day. Nah, Eddie was real chill. He told us to wait in the studio while he ran to Sam Ash. Once he got back, we sang for him; we were in the studio with Jeff Redd the very next day doing the remix to You Called and Told Me.

So the day after that, we went over to Eddie’s house, and when we walk in, there’s this girl sitting on Eddie’s couch. I’d never seen her before, but she was mad cool. We said “Wassup” …she said “Hey guys what’s up” and from there, we ended up writing and collabing on a lot of songs. From that point, Eddie puts us in the studio with her, and we pen and record 3 to 4 songs with her. That started the birth of what is known today as Hip Hip soul, and what became of those sessions was the album we all know. What’s The 411? and the lady I’m talking about is none other than Mary J. Blige…….

This concludes Part 1….Please check in next week for Part 2 of this Amazing story!!!

Today marks a milestone in the genre of music known as Hip-Hop. It was on this day back in 1992 that West Coast pioneer Dr. Dre released his début studio album The Chronic.

The album was nicknamed after the high-grade of cannabis that likely served as an inspirational tool in its creation. If you look closely at the album artwork you can see the homage paid to the rolling papers that were used during that time.

Dre provided us with over 60 minutes of G-Funk and hardcore Hip-Hop. No longer with the iconic group N.W.A., Dre was now under the flag of Death Row Records. The album has timeless songs such as “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” that to this day if heard over a radio will warrant everyone within earshot to recite the lyrics word for word.

It was with the release of the album that the world was introduced to one of Hip-Hop’s pioneers. Snoop Dogg was featured on a few songs on the album, which in turn allowed him to prove himself as a mainstay artist long before the launch of his own respective career.

I can remember having to sneak to listen to The Chronic with my younger brother. We would laugh at the hilarious skits such as The $20 Sac Pyramid. We also got our first glimpse of what beef was all about after listening to Fuck wit Dre Day. The song highlighted the standing feud between Dre and former label mate Eazy E.

One of the most profitable albums of this era, The Chronic went 3x’s platinum. While topping the charts here in the United States, the album also saw great success overseas and went on to further establish Hip-Hop as more than a fluke.

While it was known that Dr. Dre wasn’t a lyrical titan back then, his skills in producing were the most sought in the music industry. Labeled as the “Quincy Jones of Hip-Hop, Dre specialized in re-creating music more than sampling from others.

The Chronic was a launchpad for not only the label itself, but for the artists that were on it. As time went on after its release, we began to see more of what the West Coast had to offer. Artists such as Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound and Nate Dogg were emerging and putting the world on notice that the west side was indeed the best side.

Albums like The Chronic only come around ever so often. The work put forth helped me to see past what the east coast had established in terms of Hip-Hop. This album is definitely one that you should have in your collection of great Hip-Hop albums.

Warren McGlone (born September 17, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), known by the stage name Steady B, is an American hip hop emcee who, along with Schoolly D, the Fresh Prince, and Three Times Dope, was one of the first wave of Philadelphia-area emcees to gain notoriety in the mid to late 1980s. Steady B was a member (and de facto leader) of Philadelphia’s Hilltop Hustlers crew.

Golden Era rap label Cold Chillin’ Records was generally associated with Queens and the Juice Crew but Tyrone “Fly Ty” Williams’ imprint had other acts, too. A product of gritty Hempstead (hometown of Prodigy, and the birthplace of Method Man), the dapper, baritone-voiced Grand Daddy I.U. had a pair of minor, R&B-flavored hits with “Something New” and “Sugar Free” but Smooth Assassin tracks like “Nobody Move” and “Behind Bars” showed that Strong Island MCs could get just as gully as their city peers. And to think, this project almost never happened! When album producer Biz Markie initially called I.U., the rapper thought he was bluffing and brought baseball bats to their meeting before wising up.